| CIA Director William Burns is scheduled to arrive in Doha, Qatar, today for a new round of negotiations aimed at freeing more hostages held in Gaza, according to U.S. officials. Burns and David Barnea, the head of the Mossad, Israel’s spy service, are scheduled to meet with Qatari officials. Qatar, which hosts Hamas’ political leadership in Doha, has been a mediator in the talks between Israel and Hamas. Qatar announced on Monday that Israel and Hamas had agreed to extend a pause in fighting for two additional days to exchange more hostages and prisoners and to allow more aid to come into Gaza. One U.S. official said Burns’s talks in Qatar would be meant to build on that agreement.
The extension, coming as the initial four-day truce was set to expire this morning, was announced a few hours before 11 more Israeli hostages — including 3-year-old twins — were released into the custody of Israel’s military late Monday. Hours later, a Red Cross bus of Palestinian prisoners and detainees arrived in the West Bank town of Ramallah as crowds cheered their arrival. Diaa Rashwan, the head of the State Information Service in Egypt, which is also mediating in the talks between Israel and Hamas, said earlier Monday that a two-day extension would include the release each day of 10 women and children being held hostage in Gaza in exchange for 30 Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons. Other terms of the current ceasefire, including the entry of more medicine, food, and fuel supplies into Gaza and restrictions on Israeli flights over the territory, are to continue during the extension, Rashwan said.
The truce negotiations reportedly stalled on Monday as both sides disputed the names presented by the other for the next round of exchanges , but the dispute was soon resolved. The ceasefire deal initially included the release of 50 women and children because that was the number Hamas had been able to locate, the prime minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, said Sunday. More than 40 women and children are being held hostage by groups other than Hamas, al-Thani said, adding that Israel was willing to extend the ceasefire if “there’s proof” that Hamas has more women and children to release. Israeli officials had expressed concerns to Qatar that some children were being released without their captured mothers, according to an official, who said Hamas had responded that those mothers were being held by different groups and it would take time to get them.
In Washington on Monday, the Biden administration welcomed the announcement of the additional two-day pause, said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, noting that the four-day ceasefire had already resulted in a surge in humanitarian assistance to Gaza. The first U.S. government flight with humanitarian aid for Gaza is scheduled to arrive in Egypt’s northern Sinai today, according to senior Biden administration officials. It is the first of three planned U.S. flights, the officials said, noting that the purpose is “to bring a series of items, medical items, food aid, winter items, given that winter is coming in Gaza.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Israel and the West Bank this week, the State Department said Monday. There, Blinken will “discuss Israel’s right to defend itself consistent with international humanitarian law, as well as continued efforts to secure the release of remaining hostages, protect civilian life during Israel’s operations in Gaza, and accelerate humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. In the occupied West Bank, Blinken is expected to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Reuters, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Associated Press, CBS News, NBC News
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